Hanging Out At A NASCAR Nextel Cup Race I spent the day with Michael Waltrip Racing's Burger King #00 team at the California Speedway * * * CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A LARGER PICTURE * * *

My last minute pass for the day on Sunday. The water tower in the 110 degree heat. Ditto. The #00 car in the garage area. Ditto. Getting it ready for the race. Ditto. Bill Elliott's car in the garage. My buddy Gary working his ass off! View of the garage area. Ditto. The team hauler that my buddy Gary drives. Ditto. Ditto. My buddy Gary trying to be funny at the back of the hauler. Ditto. Backup driver Todd cleaning the hauler rear entrance. Two of Bill Elliott's carts. Looking towards Bill Elliott's hauler. Ditto. The catering setup where everyone gets fed. The setup Jeremy Mayfield's crew uses to put nitrogen in the tires. Inside the hauler, getting ready for the race. Ditto. Ditto (while rocking out to Metallica!). Gary on the upper deck of the hauler where the backup car is kept. View looking out from the upper deck of the hauler. View of the backup car from behind. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. View inside the backup car, looking in from the back window. Ditto. View of the front of the backup car. Ditto. View of the nearly empty garage area during driver introductions. Ditto. Here you can see the doors that go to the Owners Suites overlooking pit row. You can see how empty the garages are after everyone... ...heads over to pit row for driver introductions. View from the top of the hauler during driver introductions. Ditto. That's Jeremy Mayfield's hauler next to us. The spare engine for the car, on the hauler. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Assortment of front sway bars on the hauler. Ditto. The shock cabinet on the hauler. Ditto. The coil spring cabinet on the hauler. Ditto. Ditto. Extra parts on the hauler. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. An extra water pump. More extra parts. Inside the hauler lounge. I watched the first hour of the race from here. Ditto. It was nice and cool thanks to the air conditioning! Ditto. Michael Waltrip's hauler was loaded and leaving within 30 minutes of his wreck. Ditto. Ditto, with the sunset reflecting off of clouds in the east. The #00 hauler is the one on the right. My buddy Gary trying to be funny again. View of the sunset from behind Elliott Sadler's hauler in the garage area. Blurry shot of the tower while the #00 car was racing in third place. Looking down pit row, towards turn 1, from the #00's pit stall. Looking down pit row, towards turn 4, from the #00 pit stall. The chaotic #00 pit stall. The guys getting ready for the next pit stop. The guys a split second before the car reached the pit stall. The guys performing a sub-15 second pit stop. The guys reviewing their work afterwards. The wreck the #00 car was involved in. The guys trying to bang out the damage. Ditto. Jimmie Johnson celebrating his win... ...and some of the smoke he left behind. Part of Ricky Rudd's brake rotor. Ditto.